Game of Thrones cast featured on cover of Time Magazine

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Excitement and anticipation continue to build as we move closer and closer to the July 16 Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere on HBO.

TIME has added to the storm of content by featuring prominent cast members on the cover of their latest magazine, which will hit newsstands on Friday, June 30. On the cover, gathered around a table, are Kit Harrington (Jon Snow), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) and Lena Heady (Cersei Lannister).

One of the interesting things about the new TIME cover is that the actors are not in costumes from the show, but are clad in formal wear from different eras in history.

While the cover photo certainly includes the main players from Game of Thrones – including those most likely to actually sit on the Iron Throne when it’s all said and done – a few are missing. Not to worry, Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) are featured inside in the cover story.

Speaking of the cover story, writer Daniel D’Addario was able to follow the actors around behind the scenes to see how one of the most popular television shows of all time is made.

Besides taking in a view regular viewers can only dream of, D’Addario spoke with the cast members about some of their characters’ biggest, and most controversial, moments from the series.

One of the most talked about decisions the show runners made was the depiction of Sansa’s rape by the bastard Ramsay Bolton. Sophie Turner addressed the horrifying scene.

“This was the trending topic on Twitter, and it makes you wonder, when it happens in real life, why isn’t it a trending topic every time,” Turner said.

“This was a fictional character and I got to walk away from it unscathed … Let’s take that discussion and that dialogue and use it to help people who are going through that in their everyday lives. Stop making it such a taboo, and make it a discussion.”

Another topic always ripe for discussion is the incestuous relationship between Cersei and Jaime.

“Cersei’s always wanted to be him. Therefore, for her, that relationship is completion,” Lena Heady said. “There’s been an envy because he was born with privilege just for being a man. I think their love was built on respect.”

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau would prefer to think about it as little as possible.

“I’ve never really gone too deep into the whole sister-brother thing because I can’t use that information,” Coster-Waldau said. “I have to look at her as the woman he loves and desires.

Lena’s a very good actress, and that’s kind of what carries the whole thing.

I have two older sisters. I do not want to go there. It’s just too weird.”